5. Ewan McGregor

Ewan McGregor in The Island - Credit: DreamWorks

Three years ago this idea would have been laughable, but the stench of Star Wars has lifted and McGregor has since steered clear of subsuming his persona in blockbuster projects (the notable exception being The Island, but you can’t blame a man for letting himself be cast alongside Scarlett Johansson). Instead, he has focused on producing and promoting his Long Way Round and Long Way Down miniseries, two projects that have done wonders for restoring his masculinity and cool-quotient in other men's eyes, and priming him to follow in the steps of countryman Connery and take on the Bond mantle. Yes, the Connery-McGregor-Scotland connection is a bit of a facile one, but it’s just that kind of thing that studio marketing departments will seize on and ram down our throats until we believe it. Two years ago we were all crowing that Bond has “rebooted"; cast McGregor as 007 and two years from now we’ll be agreeing that the franchise has “rerooted.”